An electronic component mounting line that produces a mounted substrate by mounting electronic components on a substrate is built by coupling together a plurality of pieces of electronic component mounting apparatus having different working functions, such as coater that coat a substrate with a viscous material like electronic component bonding paste and an adhesive and component loaders that mount electronic component on coated substrates. Such an electronic component mounting apparatus is configured so as to subject a substrate to predetermined operation, such as component loading operation and operation for applying a viscous material, performed by an individual machine through use of a working head provided in the individual machine, such as a component loading head and a coating head, while conveying the substrate from an upstream position to a downstream position by means of a substrate conveyance mechanism having a common configuration.
In addition to main operation performed as original operation by the working head, various additional operations incidental to the main operation are also included in such an operation performed by the individual machine. For instance, operation for transferring and loading electronic components on a substrate by means of a component loading head requires, as additional operation, nozzle replacement operation for replacing a component suction nozzle attached to the component loading head according to a type of electronic components to be mounted. Moreover, operation for coating a substrate with a viscous material by means of the coating head requires, as additional operation, trial coating operation for ascertaining whether or not an appropriate amount of paste to be applied is actually applied by a coating nozzle, before performance of coating operation.
Performing such additional operation involves a need for custom-designed working units appropriate for specifics of respective operations as well as working heads. In order for; e.g., a coater, to perform trial coating operation, there is employed a trial coater equipped with a coating stage for performing actual coating operation in a trial manner (see Patent Document 1). In the embodiment described in connection with the patent document, an electronic component mounting apparatus having both a component loader and a coater is to be equipped with, as a trial coater, a sacrificial coating station attached to a part of an install seat used for attaching component feed device.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-59056